My Name is Max
by CaitySky
Summary: Experiment 001 was used to fighting Erasers every single day. So when she is thrown into the arena, one day, and meets five kidnapped kids instead of her usual opponents, will she decide to battle and kill them, or try to help them escape?
1. Chapter 1

Exp. 001's POV

My name is Max. Well, actually, my full name is Maximum Ride. Or experiment 001. I am 14 years old, and I was created in a laboratory called the School, in Death Valley, California. I'm 2% Avian and 98% human, so I guess that officially makes me a mutant. But I look, and probably act like any ordinary kid. The only physical difference between myself, and normal human kids, is that I have wings, I have air sacs instead of lungs, my muscles are slightly bigger than an average human, and my heart is stronger. Plus, I've never been officially taught how to talk, or do basic kid things, so I'm pretty unsocialized.

I've lived in a cage my entire life. I've never met a kid my own age. The scientists that made me don't let me see the outside world at all, so I figure the whole world doesn't even know about me. But they're always telling me how special I am. They say I'm the most successful, most advanced experiment they ever created. Every time I go back to my cage, I see other experiments, failed experiments, dying. I've grown up with it, so it doesn't really phase me anymore, and I can handle blood and gore, but it makes me angry at the scientists every time another one of them is stuck in my room. Why don't they just stop creating these unsuccessful experiments? They're torturing them!

Well, they torture me every day. I'm dragged out of my cage, early. Probably like five in the morning or something, and immediately brought to the examining lab. They do a routine physical on me every day. They check my air sacs, heart, eyes, reflexes, everything. They poke me with needles, draw my blood, feed me some measly food, and put me into an arena. If I were a normal kid, I guess you could call 'the arena' my gym class. They stick some of their more successful, but still not a sophisticated as me, experiments, into the arena with me. It's kill or be killed in there. The scientists won't let you out of there till you've killed, or knocked out every one of the other experiments. When I was very little, I used to loose a lot of the battles. They'd drag me out of there, patch me up, and send me to my cage for the rest of the day. But eventually I got really good, and they didn't have to drag me out any more. I'd be the one experiment left standing, and I'd be allowed to go back to my cage, early. They'd give me something for a reward. Usually something educational, like a book, a toy, or something to keep my mind occupied. But then I'd fall asleep, and I'd wake up early the next morning to it happening all over again.

This day was really not much different. I woke up, they dragged me to the examining room, then they stuck me in the arena. As I walked out onto the court, I didn't see crazy experiments gone wrong. Instead I saw five scared kids. Or rather, four scared kids, and one kid who looked like he was trying to protect the other kids. The oldest boy (the protector), was glaring at the scientists up in the window above our heads. He was tall, had dark hair, dark eyes, and pale skin that contrasted his other dark features. The glare he was giving the scientists, made him look like the angel of death! The next oldest kid, (another boy), wasn't looking anywhere in particular. And judging by the way his eyes were fogged over, I could tell he was blind. He was just the opposite of the dark boy though. He had blonde hair, blue clouded eyes, and was also very pale skinned. Behind him was an African American girl who stood by two younger blonde kids, a boy and another girl. The two youngest looked like siblings.

Anyway, I was confused. What were these normal humans doing inside the battle arena with me? Where were the mutants they wanted me to defeat?

I looked up at the scientists' window, and pointed to the kids in front of me. They nodded and said through a loudspeaker, "Yes, Experiment 001, they are your targets today."

Why would they possibly want me to defeat these innocent kids?

As if they read my mind, the loudspeaker sounded again, and they said, "You must learn survival, even if it means killing the innocent."

I shook my head no at them. I wasn't going to hurt, or even kill these innocent kids. They were probably kidnapped or something, and just wanted to go home. Not get their butts kicked by a mutant freak!

"Do it, Experiment 001! Or we'll motivate you to!"

Then they sent out real experiments. Part wolf, part human. They called them Erasers. I would gladly take down an Eraser any day. So that's what I did. I body slammed into the nearest one, and it immediately fell to the ground. Thank you extra muscles, I thought to myself. Then I round house kicked another one in the face, and it went down too. I punched, kicked, bodyslammed, bit, and elbowed every one of the Erasers, and then all that was left in the room was myself, the unconscious, or dead Erasers, and the innocent kids, looking at me, stunned.

"Finish the humans, Experiment 001!" they shouted again. Oh boy.


	2. Chapter 2

Fang's POV

My name is Fang. Even though my foster care is always telling people my real name is Nicholas Ride, I hate that name. That was the name I was born with, given to me by my abusive mother and father. I'll never go by that name! I've gone from foster care to foster care my entire life, and I've never thought back to when I was three years old, being given away by my 'parents.' I never was a very 'bright-eyed' child. I've always had a sort of threatening, dark personality, so I guess that's why I've never been adopted. But right now I live in a foster care facility called "Barkley School for Orphans" and I've finally started feeling a little bit normal here. I have 'siblings' now, because several of the other kids here have become really close to me. One, is a blind boy named Iggy. His real name is Jeff Harrison, but he hates his name too, so we just call him Iggy. Then there's Nudge, real name, Monique Pontriac. Then Gazzy and Angel, who are siblings. Gazzy's real name is Garfield (don't ask him though, he hates it more than I hate my name), and Angel's was, actually Angel. She didn't want a nickname though, because her name is actually pretty silly-fitting to her personality. Sure, she seems all sweet and innocent, but if you make her mad, well, let's just say, don't make her mad!

A week ago, I was playing with my 'siblings,' in the back of the foster care's play set, when all of sudden I felt someone cover my head with a black bag, and pull me away from the playground. I guess they had some sort of drug in the bag or something, because next thing I knew, I was waking up in a cage, along with all of my brothers and sisters. We'd been kidnapped. I heard whispers and people talking outside our cage, and I hushed my sibling who were just starting to wake up. They listened to me, and I strained to hear what the people were saying. I only caught bits and pieces though. "Kids… fight… arena… experiment… learning…" Huh?

A few days later, after being fed little to no food, they dragged us out of the cage, and threw us into a large room. The ceiling was really high up, and the room itself would have looked like a gymnasium, if not for the steel surrounding us, and the window full of people in white coats staring down at us. I glared at them. I hated them. They'd taken me away from the first place where I'd started feeling normal, ever!

Then they opened a large door across the room from us. I looked over, and I could just barely make out a girl, about my age, walking into the room with us, through the shadows. Man, and everyone said I was creepy and mysterious. This girl, although she had dirty blond hair, and large brown eyes, was looking like she could snap someones head off at any second. Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration, I guess. I doubt she could actually kill someone. She was tall, and really skinny, and the only difference from us, and her, was that she didn't look afraid.

She skanned each one of us, and after about a minute, she looked up at the window and pointed at us. The scientists made it clear to her that she had to take us down.

What was this? Battle of the teenagers?

Then, they said something along the lines of, "Okay, if you won't we'll motivate you."

Faster than I could put together, they sent out at least ten or so creepy mutant creatures. I shoved my family as far back into the wall as I could, standing in front of them protectively. I was about to go shoo the girl into the corner with us when she started lunging and kicking the monsters' butts!

She was amazing at fighting! The moves she was making didn't look physically possible. But there she was, half the size of most of those beasts, knocking them unconscious.

We all stared at her, once she'd finished. Well, everyone except Iggy, who couldn't see what was happening.

Then I stepped forward, and braved going near her. She looked me up and down, with a wild look in her eye. Her hair was messy, her clothes were ragged, and old, but she looked amazing. Is that weird to say?

I was about to say, "thanks, my name is Fang," when she grabbed my head in a head lock. She whispered in my ear "play along" in a hoarse, cracked manner, that made me guess that she didn't talk all that much. I pretended to pass out a few minutes later, and I watched her go over to the other kids, and simply punch them in different pressure spots, making them pass out. But I knew she hadn't hurt them. The scientists then came into the room, grabbed each one of us and dragged us back to our cage. I caught a quick last glimpse at the girl as the used a cattle prod to push her back through the door she'd come, and that was it.


	3. Chapter 3

Exp. 001's POV

Well, I didn't want to kill the kids, so I decided to fake it. I'd never 'faked it' before, but I guess it worked, since I was allowed to go back to my cage.

I was proud of myself. When I was really little, and I won my first battle, being the last one standing, I was proud of myself, and relieved for not being beat up, but now I was proud because I hadn't beat up my opponents.

I really wanted to find a way to help those kids. I wanted them to be free, I mean even I hated this place, and was getting sick and tired of seeing these wacky scientists hurt innocent things. So I made up my mind, I was going to find some way to help these kids.

But how? Obviously the facility was heavily guarded from anyone getting in, or out, so how would I get the kids out of here.

I'd have to fly them out.

I made up a clever plan, and went to sleep. Plan A starts tomorrow, I grinned.

Well, it's been nearly two weeks since we got to this cruddy place. We're practically starving to death, and none of us have gotten much sleep. On the plus side though, they put one of those dog water bottles on the side of our cage, so now we can each drink from one community water bottle, but we have to lap it up like a dog. Oh joy!

I need to find a way to get us out of here. Maybe we could take that girl with us. I could tell she hated those scientists too! Worst case scenario, I mean, we're all orphans anyway, she could at least come live at the orphanage with us, right?

Today they began taking each one of us kids out of the cage one at a time. They'd bring us into a lab, and stick us with needles. One needle had a funny blue liquid in it. I winced as it pierced my skin. Then they shoved us back into the cage and I made sure everyone was okay. What the heck was in that blue shot?

Then next day, after I'd finished my daily routine, they stuck me in the cage and I surprised the scientists by talking to them.

I said, "I want some wood, sticks, leaves, and ropes."

The scientists all gawked at me for a minute, and then one of them gestured to another one to go get me what I wanted. Then they started scribbling things down on a pad of paper.

The reason everyone was shocked at me was because I've never been taught how to talk. I picked up on it from the scientists over the years, but my English sucks! Plus, even if I could talk, I wouldn't because I don't want to talk to these people who hurt me daily. I don't even cry, or make noise. I'm as quiet as a mouse on a daily basis, so they won't see that what they're doing to me is affecting me in any way.

A few minutes later, they brought me heaps of sticks, wood, leaves, ropes, even rocks. And I took them, and began arranging them in my cage. My cage consists of a little cot and blanket, a little water bottle attatched to the bars, and a cold cement floor. I put all of the materials inside my cage in a big circle to start. Then I began to pile them up, and tie them together using the rope. The scientist watched me for hours until finally I finished what I had wanted to make. I sat down inside my new creation and smiled at them sweetly. They began furiously taking notes, and moniterring what I was doing.

They thought I'd just made myself a nest. But really I'd made a giant basket. All part of my brilliant plan!

My plan was to create a basket, large enough to hold every one of the kids I'd seen the other day. Since I don't want to ruin the surprise, I won't tell you what I was going to do with it just yet. But I knew that I'd have to fool the scientists from thinking things I didn't want them to think.

Like I said before, I'm 14 years old. Like any 'girl' I was bound to get my first 'cycle of womanhood' any day now. And I knew from overhearing the scientists, that they couldn't wait for that day. They wanted to see if I could raise avian-human mutant babies some day. I know gross right? Anyway, I made it look like it was a nest, to fool the scientists into thinking that I was reverting to my bird-instincts of creating a nest before I become old enough to 'be a woman.' Aparently it worked, and they didn't expect a thing.

To make it more realistic though, intead of sleeping on my cot, I slept in 'the nest' for the next few days. I would work on making it sturdier, and stronger each day, until finally I was convinced that phase 2 of my plan was ready.

I asked a scientist one day (and yes, I talked again), if I could take my nest outside the building, and play with it for a little while. Amazingly, my story worked, and they let me bring the nest outside. But they kept me heavily guarded with mutant Erasers, of course.

Then I shocked them, again, by asking them if I could bring out the kids I'd fought the other day to see it. I told them I wanted to show off my handiwork.

Again, they bought it, and a few minutes later, five confused kids, were being cattle prodded out to see my 'handiwork.'

Perfect.


	4. Chapter 4

Fang's POV

It was some time in the afternoon about two and a half weeks into our kidnapping. We still weren't eating a lot, or sleeping a lot. And we each took turns drinking from the doggy water bottle.

But then a couple of the scientists came into our room, bound our hands together, and used a cattle prod to pull us out of the cage. We walked through the strange building for a minute, until, finally, there was an exit door. They ushered us through and what I saw made my jaw drop.

It was that girl again. The scientists all called her Experiment 001. I half smiled at her, and she smiled back. Then she looked at the scientists, and did something I wasn't expecting. She hugged the nearest one! What the heck?

She then turned back to us, and then pulled us towards some large wood creation of some kind. She took Angel and put her inside of it, and Angel giggled after being picked up and plopped into the thing. Then she did the same to Gazzy, who wasn't to thrilled about being lifted, but still decided it was worth climbing into the thing. Then she hopped over the top of it, in with the two kids. I was surprised how high she'd hopped, but then she took my hand and helped me in. After scooting over the edge of it, I sat down inside it, and gave her a funny look, as if to say, "Okay, what's going on?"

She helped Nudge, and lastly Iggy into it too. She made sure we were all sitting inside it, then, she took a large stick I hadn't noticed outside of the nest. She carefully bent it to the shape of a rainbow, and placed it carefully on top of the circular rim. She used string, and rope to fasten it securely to the wood pile, and then she jumped on top of it in a handstand. What was she doing, gymnastics?

No, she wasn't doing gymnastics. She did something that none of us, including the scientists were prepared for. She opened up a fourteen foot wingspan, starting from her shoulder blades, and she began to fly upwards, with us, in this basket-like contraption.

Now I get it, she's helping us escape. Although, after being about twenty feet in the air, I began to get scared. Yes, me, Fang, scared.


	5. Chapter 5

Exp. 001's POV

Those stupid scientists! I decided to make a little bit of a show out of our great escape. First, I hugged one of the nearest scientists. (Showing how greatful I was for them letting me have all of my strange requests.) Then I showed off my strength by hoisting each one of the kids into the basket. Then I showed of my talent for crafts, by putting the finishing piece of my project together, the handle of the basket. Then I showed my nimbleness (if that's even a word,) by doing a handstand on top of the basket. Then I slowly released my wings, shocking the kids, scientists, and other experiments, and lastly I flew off into the sky.

The scientists had known that I had wings since I was born. But they've always been so tiny, compared to my body, that they didn't think I'd ever be able to actually fly. Well, part 3 of my master elaborate plan, was to learn how to fly. Without the scientists knowing it, I'd been practicing with my wings inside my cage. And I finally learned how to fly. After practicing daily for almost a week, my wings had gotten larger, and strong enough to actually lift me off the ground. Combine that with the fact that I'm 10 times stronger than the average human, and you have my master escape plan. Me, towing five scared kids, in a giant basket, that the scientists thought was a nest, out of the "School" that was my home. Finally we're free!

I flew for almost an hour before I noticed we were loosing altitude, and I was getting exhausted. I landed on a cliff, and I estimated that we had to be at least fifty miles away from the school by now. Thank God!


	6. Chapter 6

Fang's POV

That was genious! I wouldn't have been able to come up with something like that myself!

I was about to thank the girl who had just saved mine, and my siblings' lives, when I noticed how tired, and worn out she looked. She'd been flying with us in tow for almost an hour or so now. Nobody had said a word. Even Nudge, our little chatterbox hadn't said anything. I guess we were all just praying that we wouldn't fall.

"Why don't we land soon? I think we're pretty far away now." I said to Experiment 001. '

She looked at me, then at the ground, which seemed like miles away. So she flew us over to the nearest cliff.

I helped each of the kids out of the basket, then I went to make sure this girl was alright. Man, she's got to have some kind of real name. I mean, at the very least, she should have a nickname. Experiment 001 was going to get old really soon. And its not like I could just call her girl, or my rescuer or something.

It was getting late, so I sent each of my siblings to bed, and they all curled up in the rocky cave near the cliff. Even Iggy listened to me and went right to sleep. They were all exhausted. They curled up together like a litter of puppies and fell asleep. It was too cute for even me to resist, and I smiled. Even though I was wiped out too, I decided that I had to learn a little bit more about this girl.

So I went over to the cliff's edge and sat with her. She looked at me as if she was trying to say something, but then she decided not to, closed her mouth, and went back to staring at the scenery.

I figured that was my chance to question her. Figure out who she is, how she got to that aweful place, and quite frankly, find out what she is!

"So um, I'm Fang.." I said pointing to myself. Well that was smooth, I mentally slapped myself.

She looked at me curiously, then turned her attention back to the front of her.

"How'd you get into that place?" I asked her.

She started out by clearing her throat, and then slowly opening and clothing her mouth, as if she was trying to think of the right words to say. "I… w-w-was… made…t-t-there." She stuttered. "I… lived…t-t-there… forever." She said with virtually no emotion in her voice. "I… was… made. Not… born."

"Huh?" wow, real intelligible Fang.

"I was never born." She said a little more confidently. "Those people made me. I live my whole life in that place." Her voice sounded hoarse, and unnatural at first. I figured she didn't talk much. This was probably the most she's ever said in her entire life.

"Wow, really?" I said to her, and she nodded.

"You?" she asked.

"No, my family," I said gesturing to the kids asleep in the cave, "and I were kidnapped two and a half weeks ago and brought to your so-called 'home.' Before that we lived in an orphanage together." I said sadly. When I glanced over at her though she had a puzzled look on her face.

"What is an or-orph-orphy…"

"And orphanage?" I finished for her, and again she nodded.

"Well, my parents didn't want me when I was very little, so they sent me to a new home. My mother and father had abused me when I was very little, and even I agreed that I didn't want to live with them anymore. So I was sent to an orphanage, a place where they shelter and take care of unwanted kids. But they abused me there too. So I was sent to a bunch of different places before I finally found my way to the orphanage I was living in before the kidnapping. It's called Barkley's School for Orphans. There I met Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel." Again I gestured towards the kids in the cave. "They're the closest thing to family I've got. Their families didn't want them either, and Angel and Gazzy's parents died. They are the only sibling by blood out of our quirky little group."

"So where do we go now?" she asked with a sad face. She had nowhere to go.

"You can come with us, back to the orphanage, and get adopted."

"Adopted?"

"Yeah, a nice family will pay to take you home with them and make you their daughter. That's why they make orphanages, so that kids can have a second chance at living a normal life."

"But me do not want to leave you guys. You first kids I met in entire life. I not want parents, I want friends. The people who donate dna to create me never treat me like daughter. Everyone in my life treat me like an experiment. The best experiment ever created, but just experiment. They give me super human strength, brain capabilities, wings, and they say eventually I gain some form of superpowers too. I built to the maximum."

"That's it!" I screamed, scaring both her and myself by my sudden outburst.

"What it?" she asked frowning.

"Your name. I know exactly what your name should be."

"What? What is it already?" she screamed at me.

"Well, my last name is Ride, and you will definitely become part of my family, since it looks like you need a place to go. And just now you said you were built to the Maximum."

"So?"

"So, your name should be Maximum Ride!" I said throwing my hands in the air. "And we'll call you Max for short."

She looked away for a minute and thought about the name for a minute. I think she liked it, since she smiled at me with a goofy grin after about five minutes. Then she turned back to face me directly and said, "Hi Fang, nice to meet you. I Maximum Ride."


	7. Chapter 7

Max's POV

I barely slept for a minute that night. Fang had decided to stay awake, and keep watch in case the scientists from the school came looking for us, but I was too hyper to sleep anyway. I was simply lying on my side staring at the other sleeping kids five feet away from me. I saw the youngest girl sigh, and turn over in her sleep and drape her arm around the blind boy's arm. Awwww! Was all I could think. The blind boy stirred, opened his eyes, even though I knew he didn't see what the little girl had done, but he smiled and fell back asleep. Wow, I guess he knew it was her after all. Either way, how sweet. Then I turned my attention the African American girl. She had ribbons, and scrunchies, and a headband holding her messy hair back, and out of her face. She was wearing strange clothes though. It looked like she was very fashion conscious for an 11 year old. The last person I looked at was the eight year old boy. He had spiky blonde hair and he was wearing a sports t-shirt of some kind. He was slightly kicking in his sleep, and I could immediately tell the resemblance between him and his adorable little sister.

I never sleep directly on my back. Why, you might ask? Well, if I slept on my back I'd be crushing my wings. And my wings are kind of like your arms in a way, if you sleep on them funny they wake up feeling funny.

So I rolled over to my other side and stared at the oldest boy, Fang Ride. He had finally introduced himself to me. In fact, he'd even named me just a few hours ago! I was now Maximum Ride, his 'sister.' I was going to take these kids back to their orphanage in the morning and hope that their headmistress would let me join with them. Fang said I would need a cover up story. I was to be a girl, who was kidnapped as a baby, and I didn't know my parents, but the kidnappers had said they had died. I would tell them my name was Maximum Ride, and I would live with Fang and hope that he, his siblings, and I didn't get adopted before high school graduation. Or if we did get adopted, we'd all get adopted together. Fang promised never to leave me because I would be lost in the outside world. He's now like my older, protective brother. He's going to teach me how to act normal in the outside world.

He said that each one of his sibling could teach me something different. He could teach me the basics of everyday teenage life, since he was closest to my age. Iggy could teach me about sarcasm, and how to know if someone was 'playing' with me as Fang put it. Nudge would be excellent at teaching me about fashion and boys. And Gazzy and Angel could teach me how to act like a kid.

Its morning now, and I think everyone slept okay. I noticed that Max was having a hard time falling asleep, but I didn't blame her. Even I would be a little nervous about sleeping outside for the first time in my entire life. It wasn't like we had food, supplies or anything to pack up so we headed out sometime around 8:30 in the morning to the nearest city. From there, I would find a payphone, contact my headmistresses from Barkley, and then we'd all go home together. Max could become my 'sister' and we could all live happily ever after, right? Wrong.

A few minutes into our 'flight' Nudge fell down to the bottom of the basket in pain. She was crying really hard, and she was screaming bloody murder. Max immediately got spooked, and started to lower us back to the ground. She took Nudge into a small cave and we sat down outside the cave waiting to hear what Max had to say about Nudge's outburst.

Max came out with a weird expression on her face. It was a mix of confusion, anger, frustration and sadness. I went up to her right away and asked her "What's wrong with Nudge, is she okay? Should we go to a hospital or something."

Max flinched when I said hospital. "No!" she said a bit too quickly. "Nudge not looking good, but no hospital."

"Well then, what's wrong with her?"

"She grow wings. And rest of body changing too. She becoming like me." Max said, again in her emotionless voice. Man that's creepy.

"WHAT!" We all screamed at the same time. Max pressed her hands to her head and moaned. I guess that all of us yelling at her at once wasn't such a good idea.

"Iggy, help Max up. I'm going to go check up on Nudge." And with that I walked into the cave to check on my mutating sister.


	8. Chapter 8

Max's POV

Okay, so I'm flying thousands of feet up in the air, and all of a sudden, the African American girl, Nudge I think her name was, screams out in pain and falls to the bottom of the basket. I immediately take evasive action, and fly us slowly down to another cave. I just noticed, outside of the School, there is a lot of space. And we've found an impressive amount of caves, here in this place that Fang calls, "Colorado."

So anyways, we land, and I take "Nudge," into the cave, while the others wait outside. I immediately notice weird bulges underneath her shirt. I tear it off, so that all that's covering her upper body is her bra. And no, for all you perverts out there, I'm not a lesbian! I take a little bit of the cool stream water flowing through the cave and I dab it on her forehead. I manage to get her to lie on her stomach, so I can get a better look at her back. Even though I think its totally impossible, it looks like this girl is growing wings. Like the ones I have. Her back muscles are really tight, and I notice really hard lumps forming underneath her skin. They feel like bone, and cartilage. I just try to make her as comfortable as possible. Then even amidst her unconsciousness, she screams in pain. Boy, this girl's got a set of lungs! And then its all over. Two giant sets of wings poke through her back, and spread out along the cave floor. They're limp, blood-soaked feathers are easily distinguishable as a light brown, tawny color. Like the color of a deer, or so I've heard. I clean her up with the remains of her shirt. I knew that she'd hate me for that, but its either use her now useless shirt, or let her bleed to death. So I clean up the wounds around her newly formed wings till they stop bleeding. Then I lay her gently against the cool cave floor. Her back must feel like its super-sore, and really painful, hopefully the cool floor will help alleviate some of the pain. Then I stepped outside to inform the others on what's going on.

Fang immediately asked to go see his sister, so I let him. I guess he wasn't expecting a bloody, winged, shirtless girl unconscious on the cave floor, cause he then calls me into the cave with a shaky, "Um… MAX!"

Fang's POV

She's shirtless, bloody, and now has a pair of wings sticking out of her back. "Um… MAX!" I yell. The least Max could do was let her borrow her jacket, or something. I don't know, I'm not great at clothing issues, but there's no way we'll be allowed into any civilized area, with people, when we've got two girls with wings, and one is shirtless. We need to be a lot less obvious than that!

"Hey Max, do you think Nudge could borrow that jacket your wearing? We can't go into town with her not having a top. Plus, we need to stay hidden. If people start noticing kids with wings around my neighborhood, there's going to be trouble."

Max nodded, and shrugged off her jacket. She laid it down next to Nudge, so that once she woke up she could just put it on. Then I go over to check on her. I touch her forehead, and am surprised to find that she doesn't have a strange fever or something. Then I check her pulse, and moniter her breathing. Her pulse was faster than usual, but steady. Max then explained that this was normal for avian-human hybrids, such as herself. And her breathing seemed totally normal. So there was no real need for alarm. Thank God!

I told the other kids how Nudge was doing, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But that's when Gazzy went down. Oh great, here we go again.


	9. Chapter 9

Max's POV

Aw man! Now the stinky kid's out for the count. It seems like eventually each one of these kids were going to mutate to become like me. What did those scientists do to them? It doesn't matter. The second that "Gazzy" went down, I knew that each one of these kids were about to go through the same extremely painful situation. So I shoed them each into the cave and ordered them to all sit down in the cave. I told them to just sit there and relax, and if they felt the pain come, they should just give me a heads up, so I could be over there to help them. I told them each to strip out of their tops. The boys were easy, but Angel, the little one, didn't want to take off her cute little pink dress. So Fang gave her his extra big t-shirt, that looked like a nightgown on her, and they all just sat in one corner of the cave, while I tended to Gazzy and Nudge. Gazzy's wings finally appeared too, and his were also brown, but with streaks of golds and oranges. His were pretty cool, but not as cool as mine. My wings are brown, white, black, orange and gold speckled. But enough bragging. So I made both the unconscious kids comfortable, and then waited for the next kid to start the wing-growing process. Sigh, this is going to be a long night. So much for making it back to this so-called, 'orphanage' by night fall.

Fang's POV

I'm the last one to get my wings. I know its coming. I guess that's what was in the blue syringe back at 'the school.' Man, I just watched each one of my siblings spontaneously grow an extra set of limbs, of course this is going to hurt! I'm….. oh crap…

Max's POV

It's morning now. We've all survived the night. Fang was the last one to grow his wings, and they're all unconscious now.

"Max?" so much for that. Nudge just woke up.

"What?" I asked her. She noticed herself topless and immediately grabbed my jacket to cover herself up.

"What are these, Max?" the poor shivering eleven year old asked me. Didn't she know what wings were?

"They wings." I said in a 'duh' tone.

"I know that, I mean why do I have wings?" she asked in retort.

"Not sure… scientists…" I couldn't find the right words. Remember, I taught myself how to talk. So I'm not very good at sentences.

But Nudge nodded with understanding and sighed. Then she attempted to make them flap a little, but hit Iggy in the head with one of her giant wings.

"OW!" Iggy said jolting upright. "Ow." He said a second time, rubbing his shoulder blades. It was just then that he realized he had wings. And of course he had to ask the exact same dumb question. "What are these?"

I groaned in frustration, and shot Nudge a look as if to say, 'you explain, I give up.' And of course, the chatty eleven year old was happy to fill my silence by telling Iggy what had happened, that she remembered.

Fang woke up next. He groaned also, as he slowly rolled out of his sleeping position. "God I feel like crap!" I looked at him, and he looked back. What on earth is a god? And what is crap? He seemed to sense my confusion, so he just shook his head, as if to say, don't think about it too much. I guess I'll just figure that one out on my own.

"Now what?" I said to them.

"We go to the nearest town and find a hospital to get these 'things' off our backs!" Gazzy exclaimed.

"We can't do that." I said matter-a-factly. "The scientists would get us."

"She's right, if we go to a hospital, they'll find us. Our only option is to keep these wings a secret. We're still going back to the orphanage, okay? Same plan as before." Fang announced.

"I guess so." Everyone chorused.

"Good. And how's Angel doing?" Fang asked.

"Okay. She not awake." I said. "She cried… a lot."

"I would imagine so." Iggy said. "She's only six. I'm surprised she isn't dead from the pain alone. That was awful!" He groaned. "And oh great!" He shouted.

"What?" Nudge asked him.

"Now I'm a BLIND, MUTANT FREAK instead of just a blind kid. Man my life sucks."

I growled at that comment. So now I'm a mutant freak? I'm sorry, I didn't ask my deranged, so-called 'parents' to attach wings to my back, air sacs to my abdomen, and stick me in a cage for the rest of my life. I was too disgusted by his comment to stay in the cave, so I just flew off for a few minutes. I could vaguely hear Fang calling after me, and then him scolding Iggy at his stupid comment.


	10. Chapter 10

Fang's POV

Stupid Iggy. "IGGY! Man you're so thoughtless!"

"WHAT DID I DO! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON! BLIND REMEMBER!"

"You scared her off iI. I don't even know if she's going to come back or not. We're stuck here in some serious pain, and an awful predicament, and our only hope of understanding our present situation just flew off in a huff due to YOUR stupid comment!" I shouted at him.

"Look, I'm sorry." Iggy said meaningfully. "I didn't mean to upset her… Max… but I was just upset. Now there's no way in he—I mean heck, that I'm going to be able to lead a normal life. And I thought the future looked bad before!"

"Alright, we'll just have to figure out a way to get her back. No sense arguing." I said.

"She'll be back." Angel said, scaring all of us. We all thought she was still asleep. I went over to my littlest sister and gave her a big hug, trying to avoid the awkward white chicken wings on her back. "She'll come back Fang. I heard it."

"Huh?" All of us said in unison.

"Yeah, I heard her think as she flew off. She said that she'd come back, but she needed time to clear her head."

"Wait, you heard her thoughts?" I asked, even though I was a bit freaked out by this news.

"Yeah. I guess I did." She said with an adorable smile. "Now I got wings, AND I can read peoples' minds. That' s so cool!" Then she giggled.

Though she 's adorable, that Angel can be quite a creeper.

"Fang!" She said in shock. "You don't really think I'm creepy, do you?"

"No!" I said, trying to come up with a retort. But before I could, Little Miss run away came flying back into the cave, carrying two dead rabbits in her hands. She threw them by the fire, and they practically splattered blood at poor Nudge, who squealed and nearly fainted at the sight of them.

"Um, Max?" I said to her.

She turned to my direction, and her face clearly stated an annoyed 'what?'

"Where'd you get this?" I asked her. By this time, Iggy and Gazzy were creeping hesitantly towards the dead animals, and Gazzy was poking it with a stick. Iggy was curiously trying to figure out what it looked like by asking Gazzy to describe it. Angel and Nudge were in a corner, shivering and cowering at the sight of the gore fest I assumed Max meant as breakfast.

"Out there." Max pointed, and walked over to the rabbits, and began actually ripping the fur off their bodies. Then she roasted them, whole, over the fire.

Hesitantly, Iggy and Gassy inched closer and closer to the fire, to watch Max's rabbit surprise. Iggy then spoke up by saying, "Sorry I said that, back there. I didn't' mean that you were a freak. I didn't ever think that. But I am a freak. I'm blind to begin with. Now I gotta find a way to hide fourteen feet of feathery-ness under my hoodie. At least from what Fang's told me, you look quite pretty, your graceful, and you actually look good with wings. I just look like a blind clutz. So I'm sorry if I offended you." Of course he just HAD to mention the fact I'd said she looked pretty.

I didn't want anyone to see me blushing. If this girl's about to become my sister, it'd be weird for anyone to know I thought she might be 'pretty.' Apparently no one was taking Iggy's comment to seriously though, thank God.


End file.
